Ron Capps, five-time national event champion driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car in the
2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, will depart from his usual activities of trying to win
his first Funny Car championship on the NHRA pro circuit to participate in California's Humboldt
County's first NAPA Stores Arm Drop Competition at Samoa (Calif.) Drag Strip on Oct. 24.
Capps will serve as the official "starter" when 200 licensed drivers of imports, domestics,
motorcycles, snowmobiles, dragsters or any other vehicle approved by the NHRA that can run quicker
than 20 seconds in the quarter-mile compete for a Grand Prize of $2500 cash and a stocked NAPA tool
box.
The event is presented by the Humboldt County NAPA Stores and the Humboldt Del Norte Timing
Association.
"What the NAPA folks and Samoa Drag Strip have done with the Arm Drop is basically bring back the
style of the old days," said Capps, a Northern California native. "I'll be standing up there as a
starter and I'll drop my arm to start the competition between two cars. It brings back memories of
the beginnings of the sport. Many people have seen the movie 'American Graffiti' and have seen how
races with two cars are started by an arm drop instead of the Christmas Tree that is used now in
NHRA competition.
"It's exciting for me to be invited, first of all. And to go to a track like Samoa Drag Strip,
which is an NHRA track located way up in Northern California, is quite an honor. From what I hear,
there's a lot of racers who show up at this track.
"Every year at the NHRA national event in Sonoma (Calif.) I talk to a lot of people who race up
there. I'm excited just to see the place. It's beautiful country, I'm told, and it's going to be a
lot of fun to interact with the racers. Also, we're going to have dinner a couple of the nights
with some of the winners, so that part always excites me.
"They're going to give away a lot of NAPA equipment at this event. That's always a good incentive
for somebody who races part time."
Saturday racing on Oct. 24 begins at 10 a.m. sharp. For more information or questions, contact
Danny Wright at 707-845-575 or Mark Rynearson at 707-498-1298.
Additional information is available on http://www.samoadragstrip.com/armdroprules.html
